


Rose:  Remember.

by caledfwlchthat



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Dream Bubbles, Gen, Pesterlog, [S] Game Over
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-28
Packaged: 2018-06-10 00:54:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6931324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caledfwlchthat/pseuds/caledfwlchthat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A dead Dave turns the psychoanalytic tables on Rose, trying to get her to remember the circumstances surrounding his death, and to figure out who she is along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dave: Remember.

**Author's Note:**

> A canard of behemothic embellishment, reworked from another VA piece that I clearly didn’t explore in enough depth the first time around. The referenced Rose/Dave pesterlog sequence, just before [S] Cascade, has always been one of my favorites, and seemed natural to revisit after [S] GAME OVER went down. My original take was short, just something to set up dead Dave’s wanderings through the dream bubbles; but upon reading it again, I realized I could also use it to explore Rose's character.
> 
> Still WIP. Comments welcome.

DAVE: what the fuck are you talking about  
DAVE: ok somethings wrong  
DAVE: this whole conversation is falling apart this isnt how it originally went at all  
ROSE: Aw. We were making good progress, too.  
ROSE: Why did you have to go and remember?  
DAVE: this happened months ago  
DAVE: does this mean im dead  
ROSE: What do you think?  
DAVE: stop it  
DAVE: this is so sick you using the dream bubble bullshit to pick apart my psyche  
DAVE: am i dead or asleep  
ROSE: If you're starting to remember, you should be able to tell me.  
DAVE: god dammit  
ROSE: Maybe I'm just as confused as you about it?  
DAVE: yeah right  
ROSE: Am I dead or asleep, Dave?  
DAVE: i dont know  
ROSE: Try to remember.  
DAVE: i remember waking up here  
DAVE: after getting shot  
ROSE: Yes.  What else?  
DAVE: then the cage bunny came  
DAVE: he gave us the bomb  
DAVE: whered he go anyway  
ROSE: She's around.  
DAVE: the bunnys a she  
ROSE: Her name is Liv Tyler.  
DAVE: dumb  
ROSE: Take it up with John.  What else?  
DAVE: we were talking about who should go  
ROSE: Do you remember what we decided?  
DAVE: no  
DAVE: wait  
DAVE: wasnt i going to go   
DAVE: is that what happened did i go and now im dead  
ROSE: Not quite.  
DAVE: whats not quite  
DAVE: that i didnt go or that im not dead  
ROSE: Do you remember anything else?  
DAVE: no  
ROSE: What about why you went to fight Jack?  
DAVE: sure  
DAVE: i did that  
DAVE: because  
DAVE: ...  
DAVE: uh  
ROSE: Well?  
DAVE: wait  
DAVE: which time  
ROSE: What?  
DAVE: which time i went to fight jack are you talking about  


==>

ROSE: Are you trying to out-smartass me?  
ROSE: Is this the result of Time Shenanigans which you will undoubtedly claim only you as a licensed Knight of Time can adequately fathom?  
DAVE: no rose come on this is a serious question  
DAVE: though yeah its hard to explain  
DAVE: with all the time shit going on  
ROSE: Obviously I'm picking up where we just left off.  
ROSE: When you were ambushed on LOFAF.  
DAVE: that really narrows it down doesnt it  
ROSE: You only ever told me about one such occasion.  
ROSE: I'm doing what I can to jog your memory.  
DAVE: its uh  
DAVE: its jogging i guess  
ROSE: Nice.  
ROSE: So what about Jade?  
DAVE: ...  
DAVE: what  
ROSE: You didn't tell her your expedition with her would result in your death, let alone one she'd inadvertently cause.  
ROSE: Or that she'd be stuck with the job of resuscitating you.  
ROSE: Did you?  
DAVE: oh ffs  
DAVE: guess we gotta ride the groundhog day express all the way to the end  
ROSE: Excuse me?  
DAVE: what am i really supposed to say  
DAVE: hey were gonna hunt frogs til you shoot me through the jack  
DAVE: then i die and youve got to make out with me  
DAVE: that kind of changes how the whole thing goes doesnt it  
ROSE: Not if you're "supposed to," right?  
DAVE: what does that even mean  
ROSE: I guess you're right. No reason to make an effort to empathize if doing so comes at the price of oblivion.  
DAVE: OH NOES this conversation just got bumrushed by a  
DAVE: by a  
DAVE: shit what did i say last time  
DAVE: by a mudslide of fucking awful  
ROSE: It wasn't already awful, believing you might be dead?  
DAVE: you dont know ANYTHING  
DAVE: about what i was feeling or what happened on lofaf  
DAVE: blah blah blah  
DAVE: im breaking out of THIS loop so hard right now  
DAVE: just shattering that motherfucker  
DAVE: sorry rose but in this case you really dont know anything  
DAVE: youre obviously not even paying attention to what im saying  
ROSE: Are you sure?  
DAVE: i dont have to time travel to see whats gonna happen here  
DAVE: now i have to make a call  
DAVE: do i live up to your totally unfair characterization of me and what ive just been through  
DAVE: or do i try to break the news to you as gently as i can  
DAVE: at least theres no way you can kill the messenger  
ROSE: I guess I'm learning to be impressed by your sense of obligation to inevitable misfortune. It's a strange case of inspiration through futility.  
DAVE: oh fuck it  
DAVE: look i know for a fact now that im dead  
DAVE: and i bet you are too  
ROSE: Oh, I have to hear this.  Assuming it’s not just another defense mechanism to keep me from expecting greatness from you.  
DAVE: ok you know what little miss grimdark festerthroes  
DAVE: you can just watch me psychoanalyze myself out here in the open ill save you the trouble  
DAVE: though im not sure if im doing you a favor or not  
DAVE: lets see how much blood i can put into this masterpiece  
DAVE: ill call it  
DAVE: "dave gets stabbed again only this time its alpha dave"  
DAVE: by edwin fucking gory  
ROSE: Edward. Edward Gorey.  
ROSE: Not that I know, among his many outstanding works, of any such tawdry morality play. It would need a suitably alliterative title.  
ROSE: Like, "The Canticle of the Careless Chronological Cavalier."  
ROSE: Hold on a second.  
ROSE: Stabbed, did you say? Not shot?  
DAVE: yeah you heard me right  
DAVE: you finally see how far off the rails this freight train is going  
ROSE: ...  
ROSE: Do go on.  


==>

DAVE: ok so the first time i went out to fight jack  
DAVE: which is the time youre so obviously thinking of  
DAVE: i saw my entire bloodstained timeline tangling through the forest like a mix tape that got eaten by the tape deck  
DAVE: glad those shitty things ended up in the dumpster of history  
DAVE: and knowing it had to be that way because of stable loops  
DAVE: and watching jade watch me die  
DAVE: and forcing myself to keep quiet because loose lips make bad trips  
DAVE: i was already pretty convinced nothing good could come of time travel but that was just the last staple in the sarcophagus  
DAVE: you cant do anything on your own terms youre just tugged along for the ride until its game over  
ROSE: Yes.  
ROSE: That is indeed the unfortunate episode to which I was referring.  
DAVE: i thought of it as protecting her and keeping her alive  
DAVE: but more than that  
DAVE: i was protecting her illusion that anything was at all fair  
DAVE: so she could do what needed to be done  
ROSE: That's an interesting angle on the subject.  
ROSE: There is of course nothing about the way the universe is set up that requires it to be fair.  
ROSE: In fact, much of the evidence points towards callous indifference.  
ROSE: But you're right that in order to remain functional, we still need to imagine the possibility of progress and our role in it.  
ROSE: We need to believe we can take decisive action to improve our lot.  
ROSE: Like blowing up a giant bomb right before we reset our universe and cease to exist as ourselves anyway.  
DAVE: yeah sure go ahead  
ROSE: Huh.  
ROSE: Really?  
DAVE: yep  
DAVE: go for it  
ROSE: You're not going to try to talk me out of it again?  
DAVE: nah  
DAVE: i mean i already tried and it didnt work  
DAVE: so instead  
DAVE: im going to tell you the other half of the story  
ROSE: All right.

[ ... ]


	2. ==>

DAVE: the second time i fought jack on lofaf was totally different  
DAVE: i wasnt using time travel at all   
DAVE: and suddenly i was in the zone no past no future  
DAVE: only a razor thin present between me and sudden death  
DAVE: like all this zen master shit where they spout off about how you have to be one with the blade well that was me  
ROSE: That sounds like even more of a suicide mission than the one I was prepared to try and dissuade you from attempting.  
DAVE: yeah functionally maybe  
DAVE: i didnt say it was a good idea  
DAVE: to fight jack again given how it went down the first time  
DAVE: it was hands down the dumbest thing ive ever done in a constantly branching world thread full of dumb things  
DAVE: the cubic zirconia in the crown of my all-timeline blooper reel  
DAVE: but it was also one of the most honest things ive ever done  
DAVE: committing my whole being to an outcome without second guessing myself continually  
DAVE: and i owned that mistake  
DAVE: it was mine  
ROSE: How gratifying.  Because of course we both know that in the end, being a true hero is really all about you.  
DAVE: well duh i knew that was what you were driving at  
DAVE: but actually that was the amazing thing  
DAVE: especially when i think about what a sad excuse for a hero ive been so far feeling all sorry for myself and shit  
DAVE: with the weight of predestination on my shoulders  
DAVE: this time was nothing like that  
DAVE: for once i wasnt thinking about myself at all  


==>

ROSE: ...  
ROSE: I have to say, you're being uncharacteristically forthright about all this. I did not expect that.  
ROSE: In fact, none of this conversation is going the way I expected.  
ROSE: We are officially in uncharted waters.  
ROSE: So, keep talking whilst I figure out where we sailed off my mental map, the better to navigate myself away from the treacherous shoals of unfounded expectations and towards more solid ground.  
DAVE: well like i said it wasnt about me this time  
DAVE: i was so completely focused on saving jade  
DAVE: that i just jumped right into the battle headlong  
DAVE: it was chilly at first like sticking my toe into this great icy ocean of liquid fear  
DAVE: but as i stood there getting barked and slavered at and wondering which other pajamas i left my doggy treats in  
DAVE: i sort of got used to the water and i realized  
DAVE: there is no fear in the present  
DAVE: its all the looking backward and forward that fucks you up  
ROSE: But isn't it the looking backward and forward, at least in the sense of anticipating likely consequences, that enables you to make responsible decisions?  
DAVE: well yeah but not if youre just looking at the consequences of what you already decided  
DAVE: with the flow of time holding you hostage at gun point  
DAVE: you already made the bad decision way back when you started tracing your way around the stable loops and now its just reality telling you you were wrong for the rest of your short crappy life  
DAVE: thats not good planning  
DAVE: its just fucked up  
ROSE: Also, I didn't expect you to step so squarely into the middle of such a hackneyed trope as riding in on a proverbial white horse.  
ROSE: With nary a detectable hint of irony. Is he serious or isn't he?  
ROSE: Now there's a Zen parable. I must be dealing with a true master.  
ROSE: So, brave Sir Strider. Did the gallant Knight of Time succeed in his errand to save the poor damsel in distress?  
DAVE: hahaha no way  
DAVE: for one thing thats not even a remotely accurate description of any part of what was actually going on  
DAVE: jade isnt some kind of glitzy tournament prize for best jouster  
DAVE: shes my friend and we cant finish this shaggy dog story without her  
DAVE: also i lasted fifteen seconds before getting owned so hard  
DAVE: stabbed in both the front AND the back like a pathetic noob  
DAVE: not with welsh swords or anything but they were sharp enough  
DAVE: then i just lay there and bled out all over jade AGAIN  
DAVE: how ironic is that  
ROSE: ...Oh.  
ROSE: Wait, stabbed in the front and the back simultaneously?  
ROSE: Is this some new trick of Jack's, using his First Guardian powers?  
ROSE: What did he do? Stab you through himself somehow?  
DAVE: what rose you didnt follow that  
DAVE: just think it over  
DAVE: think it over  
ROSE: This doesn't make any sense.  
ROSE: You haven't had time to fight Jack again after I...  
ROSE: Um.  
DAVE: yeah haha after you what  
ROSE: Have you remembered yet?  
DAVE: you mean after you beaned me with a yarn ball and stole the damn moon that i told you it was my job to go explode in  
ROSE: Mmhmm. That was it.  
ROSE: A description both succinct, and accurate in most of the details.  
DAVE: ive remembered more than i ever wanted to  
DAVE: and dont think i wasnt unbelievably pissed when i found out  
DAVE: in the previous godawful loop through this freudian double reacharound  
ROSE: Wait. You're saying we've had this conversation before?  
DAVE: but now ive gotta ask you rose do you remember what happened  
DAVE: where were you the night shit went down on lofaf  
DAVE: honestly if youre the queen of remembering shit then this ought to be a cake walk for you  
DAVE: like walking all over that cake  
DAVE: get all that icing up between your toes and feel it squish  


==>

ROSE: Ah, rambling about baked goods sounds so much more appetizing than rambling about grilled meat.  
ROSE: Much as I hate to deflect this delicious turn of conversation, too many things still don't tally.  
ROSE: I fail to understand your abrupt change of heart about accompanying me on the mission to blow up the Green Sun.  
ROSE: Or where you're coming from with this apocryphal, if entertaining, story about a second fight with Jack.  
ROSE: You didn't have time to get back to LOFAF by now.  
ROSE: You had no reason to believe Jack would still be there.  
ROSE: Also, what motivation would you have had, having just been killed by Jack, to return and fight him again immediately?  
ROSE: Only this time, forgoing your primary tactical advantage?  
DAVE: that is for me to know and to smugly congratulate myself for knowing while you flounder about trying to deduce it  
ROSE: Throw me a line here!  
DAVE: rose youre thinking about it the wrong way this is future dave  
DAVE: if theres one thing im not short on its the fucking future  
ROSE: So you're from another timeline? A doomed one?  
DAVE: ding ding ding we have a winner  
ROSE: But you remember what I did to get here.  
ROSE: So you must have branched after that.  
ROSE: And more importantly,  
ROSE: You're here in the dream bubble discussing this with me.  
ROSE: So you know that I'm on the mission right now.  
DAVE: if youre gonna ask me how it all turns out then let me just say  
DAVE: your shitty stolen suicide stealth sortie sucked  
DAVE: you exploded the bomb but it didnt do what you thought  
DAVE: we were all suckered  
DAVE: and the whole thing came to nothing  
ROSE: But if you're from a doomed timeline, how do I know that your offshoot doesn't branch farther in the future?  
ROSE: To what extent was that dependent on my actions in this mission?  
ROSE: And, how can I consider anything you're saying to be reliable?  
ROSE: As much as I would love to play along, everything you've been saying is consistent with an extremely elaborate trolling effort.  
ROSE: Even though I'm not sure why you would waste your time on that.  
ROSE: But you're the only one of us who seems to have time to spare here.  
DAVE: oh sweet virgin grub mother of jegus  
DAVE: facepalm x2 combo  
ROSE: Well, following Occam's Razor, it's only one thing I would have to suddenly understand.  
ROSE: As opposed to, for example, jack everything.  
DAVE: well ill be honest at this point im not completely positive that youre who i think you are either  
DAVE: or that youll be able to remember what i think you should  
DAVE: dooming dozens of alt daves to gruesome ends is bad enough  
DAVE: but out here where all the timelines tangle together in a snarl of the meta skein of the worst yarn fate ever told  
DAVE: revealing too much to you could cause some seriously weird shit  
DAVE: if i understood you right loops dont have to close out here  
DAVE: you could just prevent me from having existed in the first place  
ROSE: Well then, we're at a stalemate.  
ROSE: You can't reveal too many of your own experiences without posing risks to the integrity of paradox space.  
ROSE: But I can't remember things that never happened, as far as I'm concerned, unless you give me some kind of independently verifiable information.  
DAVE: yeah that does sound like a chicken and egg kind of situation  
DAVE: where the chicken and the egg sort of sidle around each other in pointless greasy circles  
DAVE: till they both end up on someones cheap ass mcmuffin  
ROSE: Yet another fast food metaphor. Must be time for lunch.  
ROSE: You know, just before going grimdark, I had been in touch with an associate of infallible accuracy yet dubious virtue.  
ROSE: Let's call him White Text Guy.  
ROSE: He admonished me, as a Seer of Light, not to ask for my fortune to be told, but to seek it myself.  
ROSE: Which, whatever one may say about the questionable value of the rest of his advice, seem like words to live by.  
DAVE: well youve already gotten this far i guess  
DAVE: what have you got to lose except maybe my sanity  
ROSE: Indeed.  
ROSE: My own, perhaps?  
ROSE: Still, having thoroughly examined all of the facts currently on the table, these alleged memories still aren't coming to me.  
ROSE: So, Dave, the sports ball is on your side of the court.  
ROSE: Show me a sign.  
ROSE: Just one.


	3. Dave:  Quickly retrieve shades from face.

What? No, man. Just no.

This should not be up for negotiation. It isn't your MO. All the reasons you made up to avoid having to do this come rushing ready-made to wait on the tip of your tongue. You were horribly disfigured in the accidental explosion of a BAKING SODA VOLCANO. Your protective eyewear keep your MUTANT EYE LASERS from slicing everything into bite-sized pieces. Everything you see is way funnier with the AUGMENTED IRONY FEED you've alchemized into them. The shades are SHAME SENSITIVE for those especially embarrassing episodes with trans-universal ecto-family members. They look like shades but in fact they are your ACTUAL EYES and you physically can't remove them.

And yet.

You wish you were so creative with solutions to the actual impasse at hand. Right now you can't think of any other piece of "independently verifiable information" that would convince this snippy bookshrew that you aren't just beaning her with your own ball of impossible yarn.

Also, what she'll see will, in the worst case, not be an immediate spoiler for the exact consequences of her little jaunt out here into the void, and might not immediately prevent her from doing what she set out to do in the first place. Another dead Dave? They're a dime a dozen.

At best? It'll shut down this pointless back-and-forth and let you start having an actual conversation. Which you both sorely want and need right now. It's going to be a long ride through all this nothingness.

Past Dave would never have even contemplated it.

But the whole point of this exchange so far has been that you aren't Past Dave.

Not anymore.


	4. Rose: Infer.

ROSE: ...   
ROSE: Holy shit.   
DAVE: yeah   
ROSE: Well.   
ROSE: That's certainly independently verifiable.   
ROSE: So at least you weren't kidding about being dead.   
DAVE: rose although my sense of humor has always been morbid as fuck   
DAVE: and despite not being known for giving the cliffs notes version   
DAVE: even i gotta admit   
DAVE: that joke would have been way too long to be still funny by the end   
ROSE: True on all counts, I'm afraid.   
DAVE: burrrnnn   
DAVE: oh man that ones gonna sizzle for a while   
ROSE: Where'd you get the new duds, anyway?   
DAVE: wait what   
ROSE: So crisp and freshly pressed?   
ROSE: Did you seriously take time out from this frenetic endgame rush to alchemize yourself yet another suit of fashionable combatwear?   
DAVE: oh shit forgot to change   
ROSE: You wear it well, I have to admit. As bloodstained as it is.   
ROSE: I've always had a soft spot for men in uniform.   
ROSE: Especially when that uniform is, basically, pajamas with a cape.   
ROSE: Wait.   
ROSE: John was wearing a suit not entirely unlike that when I saw him, after I went grimdark and had my own ill-fated bout with Jack.   
ROSE: So! You made god tier, Dave. Congratulations.   
DAVE: um yeah thanks   
DAVE: i guess   
DAVE: it wasnt really something i tried to do   
ROSE: But I have also been informed that after making god tier, it's much harder to get yourself killed for good.   
ROSE: If you died in the alpha timeline, you had to have died either a Heroic or a Just death.   
ROSE: Where "Heroic" and "Just" are determined according to circumstances that, while nebulous and uncertain, are surely not subject to manipulation by shadowy, nefarious characters who wish us to fail.   
ROSE: Whatever you may think of yourself, from the time I've spent talking to you just now, I have a hard time imagining you could have encountered a Just death.   
ROSE: So that would mean, ironically, that paradox space itself has just confirmed you as the hero you always wanted to be.   
DAVE: whew what a relief   
DAVE: for a second there i thought i was going to have to wade through the rest of this hells of boring nonexistence without any external validation whatsoever   
ROSE: Hang on, hero boy, I'm still working through this.   
ROSE: How did you make god tier with so little time left? Was that part of your motivation for going to fight Jack again?   
ROSE: He certainly would have done the job, although I'm having a hard time imagining Past Dave would go seeking such a gratuitous demise.   
ROSE: And your Quest Bed would have been on LOHAC, but you said your battle took place on LOFAF.   
ROSE: So, that doesn't make sense either.   
ROSE: You might have died Heroically on LOFAF, but you wouldn't have ascended there, if I understand correctly.   
DAVE: this still feels like a lot more work than you just remembering   
ROSE: Ah, but wait!   
ROSE: We each have two Quest Beds. That's another tidbit I worked out while trawling the interstices of our session for forbidden fruit.   
ROSE: Why would yours would be on LOFAF, though? Unless you have some deeper in-game connection to Jade than I realized, one only Skaia would know about?   
ROSE: You would have to have gotten killed somewhere else.   
DAVE: truly you have a dizzying intellect   
ROSE: Wait till I get going!   
ROSE: Where was I?   
DAVE: quest beds   
ROSE: Oh yes. So if your Quest Bed isn't on LOFAF, where would it be?   
ROSE: Although I had high hopes of preserving our existence into the next session, I doubt there are Quest Beds waiting there for our pre-Scratch selves, when the Scratch as an in-game mechanic is meant to reset us entirely.   
ROSE: So it must be somewhere in what remains of this session.   
ROSE: ...   
ROSE: Along with mine, perhaps.   
DAVE: right   
ROSE: Of course.   
ROSE: There could be a Quest Crypt right here on Derse's former moon.   
ROSE: That would benefit me, when the moon exploded with me on it.   
ROSE: But it wouldn't help you.   
ROSE: Not unless... you caught up with me somehow.   
ROSE: Because you were determined for me not to do this alone, and were done arguing with me.   
ROSE: What would have triggered that chain of events, though?   
ROSE: I started this whole conversation to keep you from doing that without tipping you off that that was a thing you could do.   
ROSE: Did I just fail spectacularly at stalling you?   
ROSE: ...   
ROSE: Ohhh.   
DAVE: was that the first faint glimmer of recognition   
DAVE: please say yes   
DAVE: its taking all my willpower not to just hit fast forward   
ROSE: There was a stowaway.   
ROSE: Who would have jeopardized my mission.   
ROSE: It wasn't you. It was a Dersite agent.   
ROSE: You found out about him after remembering the events that led up to me knocking you out. And promptly sped your way here.   
ROSE: So you did come on my mission after all.   
ROSE: Meaning we would both have been here in the Furthest Ring when The Tumor exploded.   
ROSE: Meaning... we both made god tier.   
ROSE: So I should be wearing, not these pajamas,   
ROSE: But these.   
DAVE: hallefuckinglujah

==>

ROSE: Well! That certainly does change the equation somewhat.  
ROSE: With Jack facing not one, but three ascended players,  
DAVE: four  
ROSE: So Jade ascended too, then!  
ROSE: Perhaps we would have had at least a fighting chance against him.  
ROSE: But that isn't what happened, is it?  
DAVE: you tell me  
DAVE: youre the one whos on a roll here with the mad deductions  
ROSE: Hmmm.  
ROSE: You made it sound as though you were facing Jack alone.  
ROSE: So the five-ways duel is probably not how you, and the rest of the players in your timeline, were slain.  
DAVE: good guess  
DAVE: it felt like a lot more than five ways but youll get to that later  
ROSE: You also said that the explosion of The Tumor didn't have the effect White Text Guy had led me to expect.  
ROSE: That we'd been suckered.  
ROSE: He led me to believe that The Tumor would destroy the Green Sun.  
ROSE: Yet...  
ROSE: He never actually said that.  
ROSE: He said only that it had enough power to destroy the Green Sun.  
ROSE: And that we would deliver it to the Green Sun's location.  
ROSE: Oh, by the nine thousand tentacles of outer darkness.  
ROSE: We didn't destroy the Green Sun. We created it.  
ROSE: I guess that shouldn't come as much of a surprise to me.  
ROSE: Our misinformant claimed that lies of omission weren't a thing, instead blaming me for not having asked the right questions.  
DAVE: wow what a bullshit excuse  
DAVE: who is this douchebag  
ROSE: Let's just say I hope to have no further dealings with him.  
DAVE: seconded  
ROSE: So, let's see. What have I learned so far?  
ROSE: In your timeline, which is the same as my timeline up to and possibly including some indeterminate endpoint in the future,  
ROSE: You came on an expedition with me, and the bomb went off, which created the Green Sun and killed us instantly on our Quest Beds, causing us both to ascend to god tier.  
ROSE: Making us directly responsible for powering Jack and Lord English, the two most destructive beings in the history of paradox space.  
ROSE: Not a great scorecard for us, I have to say.  
ROSE: I'm kind of astonished we didn't simply die a Just death, pulverized under the crushing pressure of our inflated expectations and simultaneously incinerated in the inferno of our epic failure to meet them.  
DAVE: dude im not sure its really fair to pin the Green Sun on us  
DAVE: can you blame us for a thing we were trying to do the opposite of  
ROSE: I would think so, from the standpoint of cosmic judgment on the marginal value to reality of our continued existence.  
ROSE: Anyway, at some later date, you fought Jack again on LOFAF for reasons having something to do with Jade's safety, and lost.  
ROSE: But I haven't finished remembering, or deducing.  
ROSE: What happened to me?  
ROSE: Did I share your timeline to the end, and thus your violent fate?  
ROSE: Something crucial is still missing.  
DAVE: jesus h pancake flipping christ  
DAVE: you have literally the worst fucking memory of anyone ever  
ROSE: Hey! I got this far, didn't I?  
DAVE: ok look this is gonna take forever if we do it your way  
DAVE: heres a great idea that has absolutely zero chance of going wrong  
DAVE: since its a thing we can do here in mindfuck mansion  
DAVE: why dont i show you around some of my own memories


End file.
